Mississippi State Penitentiary Awareness Project
Problems addressed
Juvenile delinquency
Recidivism
Low school attendance
School dropout
Effectiveness

No Effect

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No Effect

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Life periods served
Teenagers (14 to 17 years)
Where the program was applied
Prisons or socio-educational residential centers
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a project of deterrence of delinquent behavior for adolescent boys monitored by the juvenile court. The objective is to reduce recidivism and disruptive behavior.
The intervention is carried out in a peer education format, through meetings that total five hours and are given by other offenders in a penitentiary unit.
The intention is that through coexistence and explicit accounts of life in prison, future criminal behavior among program participants can be deterred, but without the use of punitive tactics, such as the imposition of fear, intimidation, or confrontation.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed that participation in the program had no significant effect on the frequency or severity of subsequent offenses. Only the passage of time appeared to exert an effect on the commission of offenses. In addition, program participation had no significant effect on truancy, recidivism, or the frequency and severity of subsequent offenses. However, there was a significant reduction in dropout rates in youth treated by the program compared to those in the control group [1].
The study had an experimental design with a total sample of 176 male youth, with 97 offenders assigned to the treatment group and 79 to the control group [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Cook, D. D., & Spirrison, C. L. (1992). Effects of a prisoner-operated delinquency deterrence program: Mississippi's Project Aware. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 17(3-4), 89-100. https://doi.org/10.1300/J076v17n03_06

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